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Medha to make deep-sea port row a national issue

Staff Reporter

Handling of project an "eco-political scam"

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

SOLIDARITY: Social activist Medha Patkar talking to people of Thengaithittu on their struggle against the proposed deep-sea port in Puducherry on Thursday.

PUDUCHERRY: The people of Thengaithittu received a helping hand from social activist Medha Patkar in their struggle against the deep-water port as she promised to make it a national issue and take up the procedural violations in sanctioning the project to a private party with the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment.

"The issue would be included in the agenda for discussion at the June 6-7 meeting of National Alliance for People's Movement (NAPM) in Pune. It's a serious constitutional violation by the State Government that the project was given the go-ahead even before getting the clearance from the Ministry," Ms. Patkar who is also the convenor of NAPM, told reporters after interacting with the people of Thengaithittu, who fear displacement because of the port project, on Thursday.

NAPM will meet in Pune to discuss among other issue such as displacement of people and problems of the marginalised sections.

Terming the territorial administration's handling of the project an "eco-political scam," she said the project was the result of the "nexus between corporates and politicians" and should be exposed at all cost.

"I am at a loss to understand how such a massive project could be started without even conducting a public hearing and the clearance from the Environment Ministry. The Government had already handed over 153 acres to Subhash Projects and Marketing Limited for starting the construction. There are no words to describe this procedural violation," she said.

Stating that she was not against any real development projects, she said, "development should benefit the people and not real estate dealers. I am only against destructive and disparity oriented projects."

She later visited Thanthuriankuppam, a fishing hamlet at Kottakuppam in Villupuram district, one of the villages facing constant sea erosion in the last few years.

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